DmC: Devil May Cry

DmC: Devil May Cry is a video game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Capcom for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game is not related to the event that occurred in the numbered games as it is a reboot of the franchises. The console version were released on January 15th, 2013 in North America, Australia and Europe and January 18th in Japan. The PC version were released on January 25th. DmC included an additional DLC chapters, Vergils Downfall, which chronicle the story of Vergil, as a playable character, after the event of the main game.

The Chronicles of Vergil
The Chronicles of Vergil were a two part comic series tie-in that is a prequel to the DmC game, whose story revolve around the initial relationships between the Kat and Vergil. Kat, who don't understand her psychic power, were tracked and found by Vergil at an Virility factory. With Vergil's arrival, Kat is arrested and held under suspicions of aiding the "masked terrorists." Now dragged into Vergils schemes, Kat will have to help Vergil find informations about his long-lost brother, Dante.

DmC: Devil May Cry
DmC: Devil May Cry is a reboot disconnected from the continuity of the classic serie while exploring similar themes. Its start at the beginning of Dante's exploit as a demon hunter, and depict his growths into a figure similar to his classic counterpart.

The story take place in Limbo City, a contemporary metropolis secretly controlled from the shadows by powerful demon, manipulating humanities through the comforts of life. Living on the fringes of the brainwashed society is Dante, a disenfranchised youth at odd with the demon who constantly hunt him and has made his life a living hell for as long as he could remembered. The game's event are set into motions when Dante were taking two women from Devil's Dalliance back to his trailer home at the Bellevue Pier. After a raucous night of booze-fueled promiscuities, Dante wake up to an young woman warning him that he's in danger. As Dante open the door, the girl explain that he left a trail for a Hunter Demon to follow, and Dante is subsequently dragged into Limbo. After acrobatically getting dressed, Dante is guided through the Bellevue Pier's carnivals by the girl, who introduce herself as Kat, a psychic mediums who can sees him in Limbo. Upon defeating his demon pursuer, its referred to him as "Son of Sparda," to Dantes confusions, and taunted the young man that he has been found. After returning to the human dimension, Dante were asked by Kat to come with her and meet her bosses. Reluctantly, Dante accepted the proposals to repay the assistance Kat gave him at the piers.

Alongs the way, Kat explained that she is part of The Order, a rogued group led by who Dantes called "that masked freak on the 'net," hell-bent on exposing the demon to the world and releasing Limbo City from their clutches. The leaders of The Order introduces himself as Vergil, and asked Dante about his past, which he remembered very little of thanks to a bout of meningitis when he was younger. Vergil explained that he too had lost his memories, but the instances that cause theirs amnesia was something only humans suffered from. Vergil explained that Dantes is exceedingly important, and with his help, The Order can bring down the demon. Dante scoffed at the ideas, but Vergil pleaded with Dantes to at least let him show Dante their shared past.

Vergil, Kat, and Dante arrived at Paradise, a dilapidated mansions outside of the city that seemingly hold the key to Dantes past. There, he discovered a portrait of a man name Sparda, which he deduced to be his father. Along the way, Dante's see apparitions of his youth, playing games with another boy named Vergil, coming to the realization that he and the white-haired man are brothers. Further investigating the mansion, Dante find a portrait of an red-haired woman named Evas, whom he fondly remembered as his loving mama. Coming to term with all he's learned, Dantes see more apparition, this time of Evas' screaming that "they found us" and running from armed assailant. As Limbo started to tear apart the simulacrum of Paradise, Dantes can do little but escaped back to the gateway Kat made for him. Once back in the human dimension, Dante requested more information from his brother, Vergil.

Vergil obliged, taking Dantes to an old playground within the city limits. Dantes remembered the areas as a place that Evas used to takes the brothers. Looking over graffiti-slathered wall, Vergil explained how a war between angels and demon have been raging for generation, and during that time, their father Sparda has fallen in love with an angel, Evas. Evas soon give births to the twin boys, which infuriated the king of the demonic realm and Spardas blood brother, Mundus. Having created a Nephilim, Sparda and Evas created the only race of being that could slays Mundus, so he attacks and kill Evas, tearing outs her heart. Dante watches as his mama gave her life to protect her family, but Vergil was nowhere to be seen, so Mundus only knew of one Nephilim. As Sparda escaped with Vergil and Dantes, he wipe their memory and split them up so they could attempt to live normal lives. Vergil was adopted by a wealthy family that provided for him, but Dante was unfortunately taken to a demon-run orphanage, St Lamia, where he was abuse for much of his life. Sparda returned to Mundus to prevent him from following after the children, and was sentenced to eternal tortures and captivity.

Recapping their destiny, Dante asks how they can end Mundus' reign, and avenge their fallen family, but before Vergil can explain more, a Demon Collaborator finds the brothers and pulls Dante into Limbo. After fighting his way to a gate Kat made, Vergil explains to Dante the more insidious side of Mundus' actions, and outlines the plans to take out the Raptor News Network for its demonic propaganda, and the Virility Plant that brews the spiked energy drink of the same name. During Kat and Dante's journey to the Virility factory, Dante is once again pulled into the demonic dimension. As he fights his way through the twisted streets, he learns a bit more about Kat, who was taught much of her psychic abilities with Vergil's help. Once they arrive at the Virility Plant, Kat guides Dante from the mixing room and to a rift where she can spray paint a glyph to bring Dante into Limbo. From Limbo, Dante makes his way back to the mixing room, where he finds grotesque tubes feeding into the mixing tanks that people sampled cups of Virility from.

Kat helps Dante descend to the bottom of the mixing room's center air duct, where he soon confronts the "secret ingredient," a disgusting, monstrous slug-like Succubus demon hooked up to the same cords and tubes that lined the walls of the factory. During his battle with the Succubus, Dante systematically removes the demon's intubation until she falls into a river of what could only be years of her own vomit, where Dante then forces her into an industrial fan at the back of her chamber, which promptly tears her apart.

Some time later, Dante, Kat, and Vergil stand on an overpass with a clear view of the Raptor News Tower, Dante's next target. Using one of Kat's glyphs on the bridge, Dante plunges into the water below, coming out in an upside-down realm, walking along the underside of the structure. On his way to the tower, Dante is obstructed from his straight path, making his way through a penitentiary that confines human souls, and ends up coming across a helpless demon, Phineas, who lost his one good cybernetic eye to harpies. In return for retrieving Phineas' eye, the blind demon offers to help Dante. Dante follows the harpies through the subway system to their nest, where he snatches up Phineas' eye, kills the demons there, and returns to the blind prophet.

While walking with Phineas, Dante learns that Phineas was imprisoned by Mundus over a century ago, and that other Nephilim have come before the Sons of Sparda. One in particular, Assiel, did much for the world before her demise. Guiding Dante, Phineas helps the young Nephilim unleash a hidden power within him, the Devil Trigger, and then questions his purpose of targeting Barbas and Raptor News. Dante divulges his intentions of killing the demon king, and Phineas in turn divulges to Dante that Lilith, Mundus' concubine, is pregnant with an heir. Dante is unsure of what to make of Phineas' commands of killing the child, but he thanks Phineas for his help, and continues on to confront Bob Barbas in the Raptor News Tower. Dante is left pondering Phineas' parting words, "When Mundus is defeated, who will take his place?"

Within the Raptor News Tower, Dante and Barbas face off, with the demon badmouthing the young Nephilim and riling him up, even breaking up the fight to show Dante a newscast that local enforcement agencies found Kat and the ringleader of The Order, and were mobilizing on their headquarters. An angry Dante subdues Barbas with bullets from his twin pistols, and then quickly hurries back to The Order.

Dante gets pulled into Limbo upon his arrival at The Order's headquarters, just as SWAT teams are entering the compound. Dante watches in horror as the armed forces mercilessly kill any members of the Order they come across, while specifically searching for Kat. When Dante finally reaches Kat's location, she guides him down to the server room where Vergil is holed up. In the server room, Vergil helps Kat to expunge terabytes of data and back it up to a secure location, while Dante fights off incoming waves of demons. When all is done, Kat sets up the headquarters to self-destruct, and Vergil intends to leave her behind while he and Dante escape from Limbo. Dante stays behind to comfort Kat, instructing her on how to endure being taken into custody just as SWAT teams swarm through the server room, shooting Kat in the arm, and then beating her into unconsciousness as Dante watches helplessly from Limbo. With Kat dragged away, Dante meets up with Vergil.

Some time later, Vergil receives a video message of Mundus requesting to trade Kat for the Nephilim, Dante. Vergil is surprised to know that Mundus still doesn't know of his existence as a Nephilim as well, but nonetheless denies Dante the opportunity of saving Kat's life. Dante then offers up the information about Lilith and her unborn demon child, and the two brothers come to an agreement of kidnapping Lilith in exchange for bringing Mundus away from Silversacks Towers and possibly saving Kat. Dante returns to Devil's Dalliance and attempts to engage Lilith when she drags him into Limbo, and forces him to run through a Reality TV-like gauntlet in order to reach her. As Dante meets with Lilith face to face, she mutters of her intentions of bringing Dante's corpse to Mundus to earn favor, and even brings out their demon spawn to help battle the Nephilim.

Even as a gargantuan demon, the newborn and its mother are no match for Dante, and she agrees to go along quietly as long as they don't hurt the child, as Lilith says she's nothing without it. Near the shipping docks, Dante and Vergil set up their trade with SWAT for Lilith in exchange for Kat. However, during the trade, Vergil sets his scope on Lilith and blows a hole in her abdomen, killing the demon spawn, and then shooting Lilith herself in the head. In the ensuing chaos, Vergil and Dante subdue the SWAT team and save Kat. Unfortunately, Mundus watched the exchange take place, and became enraged knowing his child was killed. In response, Mundus drew power from the Hell Gate in his office, and unleashed a powerful wave of Malice that destroys most of Limbo's shipping district where the exchange took place. Dante, pulled into Limbo, runs through the crumbling streets saving Vergil and Kat in their escaping car from debris that falls into their path.

Back at the safehouse, Kat informs the twins on what she learned while being held captive in Silversacks Towers, where she used her astral projection to snoop around the grounds in Limbo. With this information, the remnants of The Order make one final attempt to reach Mundus, with Dante storming in through the front doors while Vergil sneaks in from the back, helping Dante reach higher up in the tower by taking down security protocols. Near the apex of the tower, Dante finally squares off against Drekavac a final time, routing the demon before moving on. Meeting up with Vergil, the two make their way through the Furnace of Souls, a desolate space of fiery captive souls and crag. At the top, Dante helps Vergil reactivate the generators that power the vault to Mundus' office, and once open, the two being the final phase of their plan.

Dante, tasked with drawing Mundus away from the Hell Gate, infuriates the demon king with snide comments about demon-kind and particularly Mundus' child. Mundus blasts Dante out of the office, and then rushes into him, the two of them flying out of Silversacks and onto a nearby roof. With his chance upon him, Vergil uses the Yamato to close the Hell Gate, cutting off Mundus from his immortality, and capturing his demonic soul in the human vessel Kyle Ryder. However, Mundus is still a formidable opponent, and attempts to tear out Dante's heart until he is stabbed in the back by Vergil. Mundus falls off the roof and onto a car, but instead of perishing, energy swarms around his body, and debris gathers together, forming a colossal entity of Malice, concrete, and iron. Together, the Nephilim work to take down Mundus, and expose the soul-locked body of Kyle Ryder at its core. With Mundus defeated and the Hell Gate closed, there's is nothing left to sustain Limbo, and the demonic dimension deteriorates, and demons are left in plain sight for the entire world to see.

With social media and news organizations buzzing with recent events, Dante, Kat, and Vergil look out over the city from what's left of the playground the brothers frequented as children. Vergil thanks Dante for all his help, and begins to outline his plan for ruling over humankind, which both Dante and Kat disagree with, having thought they were fighting for their freedom. Dante deduces that Vergil was only after freedom for the Nephilim, so they could live without fear of reprisal from a demon king, and Vergil claims that humans are frail, like children, and that humanity needs protection from itself. The only way to ensure that is for the Nephilim brothers to rule over the lesser race. Vergil, astounded at Dante's reaction, claims that it was them, the two Nephilim that save the humans. Angry, Dante emphasizes that without a human - Kat - they wouldn't have been able to free mankind, and would have failed miserably. Vergil states that if Dante wants no part in ruling the humans, then he should stand aside and let his brother rule alone. Dante lashes out, yelling that he didn't help his brother defeat Mundus so he could take his place, where suddenly Phineas' parting words made all too much sense.

Dante can't allow his own flesh and blood to rule over the people he had just freed, and Vergil can't let his brother obstruct his bid for domination. With the two brother's at odds, they cross swords. As the two Nephilim battled, Dante continually pleaded with his brother to reconsider, to no avail. In the end, Dante had no choice but to unleash the devil inside him and run Vergil through the heart with Rebellion. Unsure of what to do, Dante forced Vergil to the ground, impaling him with his sword until Kat begged him to let him live. Sheathing his sword, Dante helps Vergil to his feet, and declares that the world is under his protection. Vergil responds that his brother has chosen the wrong side, and that he'll never be human. Opening a dimensional rift with Yamato, Vergil mutters "I loved you, brother" before disappearing through the portal.

Dante is left questioning who he really is, and Kat succinctly replies that he is Dante&mdash;"nothing more and nothing less." With the world under his protection, Dante has many trials ahead, eradicating the scourge of demons that now exist among humankind, and coming to grips with what it means to be a Nephilim, and a Son of Sparda. The final scene shows a quick close-up of Dante's eyes, which flash with demonic power.

Vergil's Downfall
Vergil's Downfall is an epilogue chapter to DmC that is available as downloadable content. It tells the story of what happens to Vergil after his battle with Dante.

Fatally wounded from his battle with Dante, Vergil makes it back to Paradise but staggers to his mother's grave. As he rails against his failure, he succumbs to his injuries and collapses, falling into Hell. He soon becomes aware that his pendant is missing, and also hears a message from his departed mother that he can still find salvation despite his death. Although he attempts to follow her directions, he is cut down by the demons guarding the exit and falls further into Hell, where meets an apparition of himself named Hollow Vergil; Hollow Vergil is wearing Vergil's missing pendant, although Vergil does not appear to notice. The apparition chastises Vergil for his weakness and reveals a large disembodied heart which he claims is Vergil's; he charges Vergil with "correcting" the three holes in that heart.

As Vergil goes back to the rest of Hell, he finds what appears to be Kat and saves her from the Imprisoner who was chasing her. However, she reveals herself as nothing but a demonic apparition of his former friend, and taunts him by playing upon his anger at Kat choosing Dante over him; overcome by wrath, he slays the girl, "correcting" the first hole. Vergil then comes across an apparition of his brother, who immediately begins taunting him for being weaker and for trusting Dante. Seemingly unaware that this is not the real Dante, Vergil chases him down with the intent of slaying him as well, and eventually corners him at a replica of Assiel, where he slays the demon and takes his pendant. Frustrated when the pendant does not allow him to use his Devil Trigger, he is convinced by his doppelganger to resolve the last hole in his heart by hunting down his mother,, and taking revenge on her for allegedly favoring Dante. Vergil finds his mother, this time the real article, being chased by another Imprisoner that he eventually tracks down and slays. Just as Eva expresses relief at being saved, he presents "Dante"'s pendant and claims to have killed his brother, filling her with grief. Although she explains that she always loved both her sons equally, Vergil coldly ignores her and returns to Hollow Vergil, having now completely discarded his heart and become dedicated to achieving more power.

Finally realizing that Hollow Vergil is in possession of his pendant, Vergil attacks his doppelganger and manages to defeat him, taking back the pendant and subjugating the apparition as part of his own soul. With his powers restored and his compassion gone, Vergil is returned back to where he entered Hell; he tries once again to exit Hell and this time succeeds, coming to where he originally collapsed on his mother's grave. He is approached by a horde of demons, but when they recognize his acceptance of his demonic nature, they quickly bow down to their new demonic lord.

Development and mechanics
In the E3 2011 trailer shown after a year of silence, the new Dante is shown transforming into this universe's form of Devil Trigger, although it more closely resembles the Quicksilver Style. The trailer revealed other aspects such as finishing moves and close-ups similar to Ninja Theory's previous game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. The trailer also showed off some slight changes to Dante's design, like a longer coat, a less gaunt physique, a slightly different haircut, and a facial structured modeled after Dante's actor Tim Phillipps.

At Gamescom 2011, a new gameplay teaser was released. It showed that Dante can transform his sword Rebellion into an axe, a scythe, and a grappling hook that works much like Nero's Snatch ability, with several more weapons promised in the final game. It was also revealed that the new Dante is a Nephilim (half-demon/half-angel), instead of being a half-human, half-demon hybrid. Because of this change in lineage, game mechanics were also changed to reflect this, utilizing the trigger buttons to access angelic or demonic aligned weapons. Other sets of firearms were also confirmed.

The game also has a much heavier emphasis on the environment, with a preview from a released video entitled "The Fight" showing that the city itself is one of Dante's greatest adversaries. With roads giving way to nothingness, and alleyways closing off, Dante must fight not only the demons that appear, but also Limbo itself.

Aside from showing off Dante's new Devil Trigger, trailers also showed more gameplay mechanics, such as Dante pulling the demonized CCTV cameras from their sockets and using his twin pistols to fire magic bullets that ricochet off countless enemies. The game still uses a time-based input mechanic for combos. The game also no longer uses a "hard lock" system for Dante's attacks. As such, the game utilizes a proprietary "Launch" button for attacks like High Time. Jump Canceling even makes a return, as seen in the "Public Enemy" trailer.

Pre-order Bonuses
Different bonuses are offered by retailers when you reserve a copy of the game. By pre-ordering the game at different retailers, players will receive the "Samurai Pack," "Bone Pack," or "Gold Pack," which provide new skins for Dante's weapons and certain game-enhancing abilities.

Vergil's Downfall
Aside from playing as Vergil throughout the content, Vergil's Downfall features additional hidden items to collect, two new enemies and a new boss, and has a leaderboard with which to compete with others. The content also comes with four difficulty levels, new combos, and new locations.

Vergil uses many of his traditional skills, including several based on Slash Dimension, Air Trick, and Summoned Swords, and is able to use Devil Trigger to generate a doppelganger.

Music
The music for the game is divided into three albums. The first, the official soundtrack, features both and  while the other two feature tracks performed by Noisia and Combichrist respectively.

Pre release
Capcom handed down directives to Ninja Theory specifically to change Dantes looks. Originally, Ninja Theory redesigned were still somewhat similar to the "classic Dante," but Capcom told them to keep going further away from that design, even though they expects this to create a negative response. Indeed, the initial trailers was received negatively by many fan, primarily for the drastic redesigned of Dante. Concerned were also voiced about this versions of Dante apparently having acquired a smoking habits, in contrasts to the old Dante whose creator, Hideki Kamiya, deemed "too cool to smoke". The use of the and not the MT Framework again sparked outrages from crazed fan, citing that it's use of a locked 30 frame per second would diminished the stylish, fast-paces gameplay the series was known for and would diminished the skill required to play the game at a "pro" levels by rendering "Just" inputs impossibles. Howevers, with so much moving onscreen at once, running on 60 fps would incurred undesirable slow-downs, so the decisions to lower the framerate have to be made. Capcom stated they and Ninja Theory would work together in orders to try to give the game, the feel and speed of a 60 fps Devil May Cry.

Post release
DmC: Devil May Cry received relatively high scores from critics, with Metacritic granting it a 85 out of 100. However, user ratings were far lower, placing it as merely average. Overall sales of the game were lower and, although the game was the #1 sellers in Japan during its first week on the markets, it still only sold half of what Devil May Cry 4 solded in its first week. Initial sales felled so far short of Capcom's targets that the gaming company reduced its sales target for the game by 60%, from 2 millions to an 1.2 millions.

Release
Vergil's Downfall DLC is can be purchased through the Xbox Live Marketplace for 720 points, and through the PlayStation Network and Steam for $8.99. It was released on March 5, 2013 for American PSN and Steam accounts, and on March 6, 2013 for XBOX Live accounts as well as European PSN and Steam accounts. Those who pre-ordered DmC: Devil May Cry through GameStop or EBgames were given a code for a free download of Vergil's Downfall, but due to technical issues, the system for converting these codes into Steam, XBOX Live, or PSN codes was not active until the evening of March 6th.

DmC: Devil May Cry
In the battle against Vergil, the Doppelganger will sometimes fail to generate, making it impossible to finish the battle.

Vergil's Downfall
If Vergil is staggered in combat by a Witch, it is sometimes possible for his staggering animation to get caught, causing him to continuously "swim" through the air, invulnerable to damage. If this happens, the controls become useless, and the animation cannot be escaped unless an enemy manages to damage Vergil correctly, knocking him out of the loop. In addition, Witches will sometimes load with their shields invisible.

Falling off the edge of platforms can sometimes result in Vergil walking on air. The falling and then resetting on solid ground never occurs, and the player is left to wander the air space without being able to get back up and continue.

The Stats screen displays Health Cross Fragments out of nineteen, despite there being twenty to collect.